In mission-critical applications being executed by electronic devices, the proper operation of the devices is typically assessed continuously to ensure the safe and proper operation of the devices. Various conditions and events can cause failures in electrical devices that adversely effect the safe and proper operation. The consequences of such failures are of typically much greater concern when the electrical devices in which the failures occur are performing safety-related processes. The safety-related processes include applications that require on-going monitoring and verification of the processor performing safety-related processes. When the devices are being operated by users (as compared to the manufacturers, for example), self-test mechanisms are deployed in the field to ensure that the task of verifying safe and proper operation of the devices can be performed.
The embedded and real-time nature of these applications requires them to be functionally operational for extended periods. However, it is difficult to test the electronic devices executing the mission-critical applications during these extended periods without affecting the performance of the electronic device. Thus, many such devices rely upon power-up testing of the device to detect and/or diagnose faults. However, failures that occur during the extended operational periods might not be detected in a timely manner when relying upon power-up testing.